Sam Harris.org Reader Forumhttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/
Sam Harris.org Reader ForumenCopyright 20162016-12-09T14:19:08+00:00Merkel calls for full-face veil banhttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/69046/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/69046/#When:05:17:00Z<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fmobile.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F12%2F06%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fmerkel-calls-for-ban-on-full-face-veils-in-germany.html%3Freferer%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2F">http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/world/europe/merkel-calls-for-ban-on-full-face-veils-in-germany.html?referer=https://news.google.com/</a></p>2016-12-07T05:17:00+00:00‘Alt-right’ online poison nearly turned me into a racisthttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/69019/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/69019/#When:21:46:43Z<p>It started with Sam Harris, moved on to Milo Yiannopoulos and almost led to full-scale Islamophobia. If it can happen to a lifelong liberal, it could happen to anyone.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Fnov%2F28%2Falt-right-online-poison-racist-bigot-sam-harris-milo-yiannopoulos-islamophobia">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/28/alt-right-online-poison-racist-bigot-sam-harris-milo-yiannopoulos-islamophobia</a></p>
<p>This article is so dumb</p>2016-11-28T21:46:43+00:00Don’t insult Islam, because that will send *moderate* Muslims into the hands of the terroristshttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68968/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68968/#When:07:26:19Z<p>I’m not commenting on the bulk of this article, but the last sentence has to win some sort of irony award…</p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2F841197%2Fislam-is-a-malignant-cancer-the-hateful-rhetoric-of-michael-flynn-trumps-new-national-security-adviser%2F">Muslims become terrorists</a></p>2016-11-19T07:26:19+00:00How Maajid Nawaz subtly tells his naive Facebook fans to lay down and die.https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68966/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68966/#When:23:56:44Z<p><strong>How Maajid Nawaz subtly tells his naive Facebook fans to lay down and die.</strong></p>
<p>The link below is to Maajid’s Facebook page today.</p>
<p>Maajid wrote:</p>
<p><span style="font-size:16px;"></p><blockquote><p>ctrl-left, alt-right delete</p>
</blockquote><p></span></p>
<p>The message tells his infidel Facebook followers to go Left, and for the new “alt-right” (i.e. the anti-Islam right). If this advice is followed, infidel society will lay down and die, and that is the message he wants to deliver.</p>
<p>He hates non-Muslims.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fstory.php%3Fstory_fbid%3D1193701400697123%26id%3D135775283156412">https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1193701400697123&amp;id=135775283156412</a></p>2016-11-18T23:56:44+00:00Germanistanhttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68948/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68948/#When:20:22:50Z<p>There have been so many posts about the Fatherland in my Swedenistan thread I thought it only fair to give Germany one of its own, so here it is.</p>
<p>I’ll start it off with this short clip: <a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dpu9K2TCON58">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu9K2TCON58</a></p>
<p>Hijabs are cool!</p>2016-11-15T20:22:50+00:00SPL attacks Nawaz &amp;&nbsp; Hirsi Alihttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68928/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68928/#When:13:59:43Z<p>Sam Harris has recently been tweeting about the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. He is arguing against the inclusion of Maajid Nawaz and Aayan Hirsi Ali as hate mongers. I agree, it is shameful to have included them on this list. </p>
<p>Agree with them or not, these are Muslim people criticising the Muslim faith and regimes they have experienced. They risk death by doing so. If this isn’t a case where defending their free speech is defending all of our free speech then I don’t know what is.&nbsp; </p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.splcenter.org%2Fnews%2F2016%2F10%2F26%2Fsplc-publishes-media-guide-countering-prominent-anti-muslim-extremists">https://www.splcenter.org/news/2016/10/26/splc-publishes-media-guide-countering-prominent-anti-muslim-extremists</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fbranding-moderates-as-anti-muslim-1477866475">http://www.wsj.com/articles/branding-moderates-as-anti-muslim-1477866475</a><br />
“The unstated premise of the report is that criticizing Islamist movements, ideologies and regimes, and Islam itself, is the same as hating Muslims. If the Western left believes this, then already-embattled reformers in the Muslim world will be even more isolated.” - wall street journal</p>
<p>Some more (similar to wsj) opinions, that I found interesting reading:<br />
<a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fcjonline.com%2Fopinion%2F2016-11-12%2Fmatt-johnson-defense-ayaan-hirsi-ali-and-maajid-nawaz">http://cjonline.com/opinion/2016-11-12/matt-johnson-defense-ayaan-hirsi-ali-and-maajid-nawaz</a><br />
<a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tabletmag.com%2Fjewish-news-and-politics%2F216494%2Fsouthern-poverty-law-center-blacklist">http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/216494/southern-poverty-law-center-blacklist</a></p>
<p>“It seems the SPLC is beyond redemption” tweets Sam Harris as he retweets this: <a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.twitter.com%2Fthomaselder84%2Fstatus%2F795677815303761920">https://mobile.twitter.com/thomaselder84/status/795677815303761920</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.twitter.com%2FSamHarrisOrg">https://mobile.twitter.com/SamHarrisOrg</a></p>2016-11-13T13:59:43+00:00Sam’s podcast with Ayaan Hirsi Alihttps://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68926/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68926/#When:23:26:17Z<p>My thoughts in a 3-part essay (the link below goes to part 3; the first sentence in part 3 contains links for the reader to consult parts 2 and 1).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.samharris.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fhesperado.blogspot.com%2F2016%2F11%2Fsam-and-ayaan-part-3.html">http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2016/11/sam-and-ayaan-part-3.html</a></p>
2016-11-12T23:26:17+00:00Have you vetted the truth of this story?https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68918/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68918/#When:17:36:51Z<p>So does this Finnish woman exist? Did she emigrate, lose her son, and brush it off as martyrdom? Have you verified any of the facts in this case?</p>
<p>You note the high quality of the magazine, and note that it is written for the audience of Islamics in the larger world. Is this woman real, or is she an avatar for a writer of the publication? Which is more likely?</p>
<p>This matters a lot. We are debating how to counter a force against our part of the world. The adversary’s propaganda is illuminating and helpful, but it is not necessarily true. If you assume it is true, then your response may be inappropriate. In particular, by accepting this story at face value, you attribute a vast power to the ideology - easily able to separate a mother from her son.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>2016-11-11T17:36:51+00:00What goes around comes around…https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68864/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68864/#When:08:59:11Z<p>They - the Muslims - drug us and complain about the spread of loose living and decadence.<br />
We - the West - influence so as to supress their intellectual and economic culture, and we then complain about backwards values.</p>
2016-11-06T08:59:11+00:00The “houses” of Islam—Why so rarely spoken of?https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68830/
https://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread8982/viewthread/68830/#When:13:37:08Z<p>For those unfamiliar with the concept of these “houses”, a quick run-down:<br />
<em><strong>Dar al-Islam</strong></em>, “the house of peace”: The notion of a homogeneous Islamic society where Islam rules, all non Moslems exist under sufferance of the governing Islamic regime, where Sharia law likely presides as jurisprudence and the society is considered to be at peace within the construct of the biome it creates (albeit perhaps barbaric-seeming to the non Moslem looking in).</p>
<p><strong><em>Dar al-Harb</em></strong>, “the house of war”: The non Islamic, outside world and / or non Islamic societies where Moslems exist.</p>
<p>Now, the distinction between these two “houses”, or philosophies, relates to, primarily, how Moslems conduct themselves. In the former, Moslems live in relative harmony with one another and can even interact peaceably with external, non Islamic societies.&nbsp; In the latter, however, the concept of <em>jihad</em> (“struggle”) reigns and an ever-present desire to either overturn the non Islamic institutions or assimilate them to Islam, exists.</p>
<p>Why is this relevant?&nbsp; Well, it’s relevant in that is explains certain anomalies apparent in Moslem behaviours.&nbsp; For example, why is it that <strong>Asian Moslems</strong> tend to live in relative harmony when compared to their Middle Eastern counterparts?&nbsp; Sure—there are issues in the south of Thailand and Philippines, as examples; but these are regions that either border or all but border with Malaysia—a quite strict, Islamic country—and can also be attributed to ‘imported’ strains of ideology from the Middle East.&nbsp; One the other hand, we have the Age-old, go-to excuse of Western involvement in the Middle East, which admittedly, is a factor.&nbsp; But, once of Sam’s recent podcasts—<em>What Do Jihadists Really Want?</em>—all but debunked this explanation as little more than fuel that stokes a fire that’s been conflagrant for nearly a millennia and a half.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding any of these, what some could perhaps construe as mitigating factors, the differentiation of Asian Islam could hardly be more stark when weighed against the chaos of the Middle East—and this is where the two “houses” concept comes into play.&nbsp; Put simply, the Asian stand of Islam is more <em>dar al-Islam</em> leaning, while the Middle East is far more on the <em>dar al-Harb</em> side of the ledger; and these are in acquiescent respect to each “house’s” distinctive character traits.&nbsp; That is to say, the Middle Eastern mind-set is one of the dissemination of whatever form of Islam is predominant (usually Sunni).&nbsp; In Asia, Moslems keep to their own patch and do not generally attempt to obtrude their ideologies upon their neighbours.</p>
<p>Another example where these concepts could be applied is in how Moslems tend not to assimilate into non Moslem societies; instead forming their own ghettos that serve as enclaves for implementing there cultures and even laws (see: the U.K.).&nbsp; This is an example of the <em>dar al-Harb</em>, ‘yin’ mind-set prevailing over it’s ‘yang’, if you will.</p>
<p>So, it is reasonably to infer that “moderate Moslems” (as non Moslems have coined it, for those of the faith in question that commune with their society, rather than try to coöpt it), are in fact <em>dar al-Islam</em> adherents; as distinct from the <em>dar al-Harb</em> side, which account for those who take their fanaticism to a bellicose level.</p>
<p>I had read of these concepts in the past (perhaps not long after the “9-11” incidents occurred… I forget), but they escaped me until I had a conversation a few months back, with a Moroccan man (Jewish; claimed to speak four Arabic dialects; came across as reasonably erudite and convincing) who explained to me why—as he saw it—‘we’ (the West) would never force Moslems into a peaceful coexistence, no matter how hard we tried; and how misunderstood the workings of Islam were by most, if not all non Moslem laymen.&nbsp; Since then, I’ve been listening and reading to myriad discourses on Islam, its troubles, proposed reformations <em>etc.</em>, but have rarely, if ever, come across the concepts delineated hereinbefore broached.</p>
<p>I’m assuming Sam knows about these elements of the equation and factors them into his angles of approach when preaching on these matters(?)... because they are indeed relevant and go some way to explaining the incongruities seen in different people of the Islamic system of superstition worship.</p>2016-10-30T13:37:08+00:00